The alternation that our journal has adopted between themed issues and open issues shows here, we believe, after the fall themed issue on AI, its whole validity as we present an array of interesting and thought-provoking research on a wide variety of topics (or “sections,” per our journal nomenclature). This is a particularly rich open issue, one that stimulates our design thinking in appreciating the work of colleagues from around the world (and in so-doing posing questions to ourselves) on how to move forward in the different but interconnected fields of design.

We are especially honored to open the issue with an interview to Kenneth Frampton on his retirement from his long tenure as professor at Columbia University. It is a most stimulating conversation with Yehuda Safran and Daniel Sherer on his outstanding scholarly career, intertwining further reflections on his theoretical and critical constructs (such as the idea that there is a story of “another” Modern Movement that needs to be told) with intriguing anecdotes of his interactions with the major protagonists of modern architecture. After reading the interview, one cannot help but asking oneself on how would it be possible to regain today the level of cultural discourse afforded by that impressive score of architects, critics and intellectuals that Frampton helped us so well to understand in their multiple connections and differences, artistic intentions and contributions to our fields.    

Also in the opening section of “criticism,” and related to Frampton’s idea of the “other” Modern Movement, we feature a re-appraisal by Stamatina Kousidi of the role that the critical study of the vernacular, especially through the lens of exhibition curation, has had in the development of a more mature modern sensibility. We close the section with Aya Jazaierly and Andrea Canclini discussing the “design story” of the Japan National Stadium for the 2020 Olympics and the interesting controversy that it sparked. Then, in the “theory” section, a discussion by Igor Siddiqui centers on a relatively lesser known figure of French Modernism, Claude Parent, and his most intriguing concept of the “oblique,” with its spatial translation of the practicable, indeed a strange and disquieting architectural device at the intersection with interiors and installation art.

Then, we have contributions on: how to approach the revitalization of modernist housing (Fabio Lepratto); new concrete technology (Pablo Moyano Fernandez); construction detailing (Eleni Vlachonasiou) at a time when, to paraphrase Sigfried Giedion, “digital technology takes command”; AI and the envisioning of public space (Yandi A. Yatmo et al.); and a broader discussion on the phenomenon of cities from scratch by our own Taraneh Meshkani. We conclude with a series of “case-studies”: on strategies of landscape urbanism for the revitalization of a former industrial city in Northen Ohio, USA (Yong Huang); sustainability through community engagement in Istanbul (Peter Wong et al.); reparative mapping for a Native American village within a cross-disciplinary research at the intersection with anthropology (Stephen Luoni); and how a travelogue may become an effective tool to narrate cultural heritage, as well as an educational experience (Giuseppe Resta and Berna Göl).

We complete this rich issue with an equally rich section of book reviews. As demonstrated over the years, at TPJ we place particular value on book reviews as a way to select and promote valuable publications that, in our view, feed into the discourse unfolding through the pages of the journal. Thus, in this issue Meshkani and myself join invited authors Stephen Leet and Diane Ghirardo to discuss books published between 2022 and 2023. We start with a volume edited by Elisa Dainese and Aleksandar Stanicic on an unfortunately timely issue, such as worn-torn areas of the world. Then we look at Angelo Maggi’s monograph, on the work of a unique architect-turned-photographer, G.E. Kidder Smith, who considerably contributed, through his critical eye, to the narrative of modern architecture. We include a volume by Orazio Carpenzano, Federica Morgia and Manuela Raitano, who edited the proceedings of a major international symposium, held at Sapienza University in Rome in 2021, with contributions by, among others, Rafael Moneo, Peter Eisenman, Franco Purini, Jean-Louis Cohen, and Maristella Casciato, on the legacy of architect-intellectual Carlo Aymonino, who has not yet received proper recognition for the influence he had on the evolution of modern architecture. We conclude with a self-authored monograph on the work of John Ronan, who, in our view, is currently emerging among the most interesting and promising figures on the world stage of contemporary architecture.